Library of America Book Recommendations & Book Mentions

Library of America

Washington Irving, author of “Rip Van Winkle” and “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow,” was born #OTD in 1783. Among the first American writers to gain fame in Europe, he was called by Thackeray the “ambassador whom the New World of Letters sent to the Old.” https://t.co/4K3klQer6P https://t.co/O6xgZYyrgU

Library of America

Oscar-winning actor Mary Astor, known for playing Brigid O'Shaughnessy in The Maltese Falcon (based on Dashiell Hammett's novel), was born #OTD in 1906. Writer of 5 novels and 2 best-selling memoirs, she had a scandalous affair with playwright and LOA author George S. Kaufman. https://t.co/CLl4XUTCCG

Library of America

Nathaniel Hawthorne's THE SCARLET LETTER was first published #OTD in 1850. Back in 2016, for our blog, David Denby wrote about what it was like to read the book with a contemporary high school English class: https://t.co/hGuFYjIVWL

Library of America

On 4/20, join Tobias Wolff, Nicole Krauss, and Philip Davis for our April LOA LIVE event, a master class in “The Magic Barrel,” one of Bernard Malamud’s most brilliant and beloved stories. You can register for the free virtual program here: https://t.co/dCxmZDx035 https://t.co/1jqYs5TsGo

Library of America

Spotted in @bjnovak's dark comedy Vengeance: the LOA edition of Alexis de Tocqueville’s Democracy in America! Come for the 19th-century masterpiece of American politics and society, stay for the sharp, hilarious take on the contemporary U.S. It’s streaming now! https://t.co/vsmGYTEu3v

Library of America

“The Oregon Trail”, Francis Parkman’s vivid account of his frontier adventures during the 1840s, was praised by Herman Melville for its “true wild-game flavor”—and now the LOA volume of this classic work, with “The Conspiracy of Pontiac”, is back in stock! https://t.co/J0Wd5AouE8 https://t.co/q9gWzpsCRG

Library of America

#OTD Herman Melville makes "the Sunday fight" at Shiloh the subject of one of his best poems, which appears in his collection BATTLE-PIECES AND ASPECTS OF THE WAR, one of the few literary masterpieces to emerge from the Civil War. [2/3] https://t.co/mldvSnHmWb https://t.co/k4Sz9ZtLvo

Library of America

Countee Cullen’s 1925 debut collection “Color” made him, in the words of H. L. Mencken, “famous, like Byron, overnight.” A major poet, novelist, and playwright of the Harlem Renaissance, connected with Duke Ellington and Langston Hughes, he was born #OTD in 1903. https://t.co/omGFWmma5r

Library of America

Nella Larsen, a major novelist of the Harlem Renaissance and author of 1929’s “Passing,” was born #OTD in 1891. “Discovering Nella Larsen is like finding lost money with no name on it,” wrote Maya Angelou. “One can enjoy it with delight and share it without guilt.” https://t.co/iy3fMROpJP

Library of America

On the @artofmanliness podcast, professor and author John Kaag talks about Thoreau’s relationship to work: “He did lots of kinds of work—from carpentry to surveying to helping raise Ralph Waldo Emerson’s kids—and thought a lot about the nature of work.” https://t.co/hyQCUC7gPI